Unite Scotland has told Mahle Directors at a heated meeting this morning that ‘hollow rhetoric’ over the future of jobs at the Kilmarnock plant will be resisted.

Unite Regional Officer Jim Winter said, “Mahle Director Matthias Langbein informed us that the company will now conduct a viability study into the future of the Kilmarnock plant. Further investigation into the impact of consolidating bushings production in Italy and Slovakia will also be undertaken as part of this process. We expect this to be presented in four weeks.

We are now at a critical juncture. There can be no doubt that the workforce feels totally betrayed by Matthias Langbein’s actions to this point. Mahle must now demonstrate that their study will be genuine and objective.

This plant is viable and its world-class engineering is profitable. We have made it absolutely clear that if this morning’s meeting proves to be nothing more than hollow rhetoric then we will use every means available to resist the unnecessary off-shoring of skilled jobs from Kilmarnock.”

Unite Scotland will continue to campaign for the retention of these skilled jobs in Kilmarnock throughout the timescale of Mahle’s study.